3/10/11

Day 1 & 2 in Chicago's area

After being wellcomed at the airport, I went to Al Budding's house where I will stay during 4 days. Al is a 1966 NCAA Ohio State College World Series Champion and well known coach with a huge international experience.

2:30 hours after landing, I will have my first experiance here: an indoor practice at Moraine Valley Community College. Al was Head Coach there for 18 years. We meet Coach Dave Murray and Tom Rads for a dynamic practice. A lot of different stations wheer the work to do is well divided: infield / outfield, pitcher defense routine, pitcher / catcher, BP... At the end, it was a good practice to see and a good experience for me (a lot of ideas to reproduce myself in France because we practice indoors too).

Day after, big program. In the morning we drove to Joliet Junior Collège. Cold and rainy weather, but to come an outdoor practice. Once there I found a nice and dry baseball field, home of the Wolves. Then I meet Coach Wayne King. He is known in the area to be the coach who practices and plays the earliest in the season. At the program today, a lot of BP and an inersquad game. Here all runs perfect and each player knows what to do.

Later in the afternoon, Al and I went to Sandberg High School. we met their Coach Jim Febianski and Anna Olson. Here too, was a very interesting softball practice to see. A lot of different indoor stations (pitching/ infield-outfield) and game situations. But here the most interesting was the BP: 2 batting cages (1 for live BP / 1 with 2 pitching machines high fast balls and change-ups) + 3 stations (1 outside pitch / 1 batting tees / 1 conditionning). During all this practice, all runs fast and simple and girls have fun.